Nice-K

In his final Florida tuneup before the Red Sox break camp, Daisuke Matsuzaka turned in an unbalanced outing as Boston fell to the Reds, 5-0.

In five scoreless innings, Matsuzaka, who wasn’t involved in the decision, didn’t give up a hit, struck out six and walked five. He threw 104 pitches, 59 for strikes.

“(He threw) a lot of pitches in a five-inning stint,” manager Terry Francona said. “What comes from it is that even though he probably didn’t command like he wanted to, he didn’t give them anything. There’s a lot of ways for him to get outs. I think fastball command was difficult for him today, but there’s a lot of ways for him to get outs. But there was some good. It’s not always perfect.

“I don’t think that every time a pitcher goes out, regardless of who it is, they’re going to hit the glove every time. That doesn’t happen. But we got him stretched out. He’s ready to go. Again, he doesn’t have the right to have spring training because of every camera and all you (media). I see it that way, but I don’t think everybody else does. So, thankfully, we’re the ones making the decision.”

In a departure from his pattern of being very accommodating with the media, Matsuzaka refused to talk with reporters after the game, leaving Sox Japanese media and player coordinator Sachiyo Sekiguchi to issue a statement from the pitcher.

“This time of year, I think the content of my pitching is more important than the result on paper,” the statement said . “I’m not happy with the content of my pitching today. I threw a lot of walks and wasted balls, and it was tough on my fields (sic) to defend and to get in a good rhythm on defense — uh, no, on offense, sorry. It’s something I want to pay attention to in the regular season.”

When asked if there was a reason Matsuzaka wouldn’t meet with reporters, Sekiguchi replied: “All I can say is, this is his words and that’s how he feels, and that’s all he has to say for today.”

Pitching coach John Farrell, who could not attribute Matsuzaka’s lack of sharpness to any one thing, said the pitcher struggled with the curveball out of the windup, and rushed the delivery of his fastball.

“Against Pittsburgh five days ago, if he got behind 1-0 or 2-0, he had the ability to drop that curveball over at any time, and that was the difference between today and five days ago,” Farrell said. “But still I think we’ve got to be careful not to pick him apart so much because he is human and he’s going to have days like any other pitcher where he’s not going to have total command of five pitches and total command of the strike zone.

“If he struggles on a day when he gives up no hits in five innings, I think that’s a testament to his ability to make pitches in certain counts, even though he ran some deep counts. This was another step to get his pitch count at 100. … So there are going to be days and starts where he’s going to have to battle through, and today was one of them.”

Catcher Jason Varitek, who has caught each of Matsuzaka’s Grapefruit League outings, also said the hurler struggled with command of his fastball and the sharpness of his breaking pitches. Despite those problems, Varitek was encouraged by Matsuzaka’s ability to get hitters out.

“Yeah, when you don’t have your best feel, to still be able to (get hitters out),” Varitek said. “I think he’s got enough weapons to go after hitters (in) different ways, and (he’s) just trying to find out, see how all those weapons work.”

The pair has one more exhibition game together — Saturday against the Phillies in Philadelphia — before the regular season begins.

“As time goes on, I would like to see some more of his pitches,” Varitek said. “I want to see his split some more, and I want to see his changeup some more, and just see everything, and keep getting sharper.

“He’s got a full repertoire of different pitches and seeing which ones at times are his best. I’m not sure any one is better than any other. They’re all pretty good.”

Matsuzaka was seen stretching his back in the dugout between innings, giving rise to questions about whether his back was bothering him during the game. Francona downplayed that, saying it’s just the pitcher’s mannerisms.

Francona also cautioned reporters not to read too much into Matsuzaka’s refusal to speak after the game.

“You guys are going to drive me nuts,” Francona said, half-joking. “This is a spring training game in Sarasota. You guys are going to make this hard. Let’s just ease off now. I know why he didn’t want to talk to you guys. I don’t blame him.”